Planning model

This chapter is a continuation of the previous one in which you were briefed about the concept of models in SAP Analytics Cloud and got hands-on exposure to the analytics model. Here, you will get information about the second type of model, which is called the planning model. A planning model is a model in which you work with planning features. To remind you, a planning model is a full-featured model, which comes with preconfigured time and categories dimensions for actual, budget, planning, forecast, and rolling forecast.

A planning model also supports multi-currency and offers security at both model and dimension levels to restrict access to specific values in the report to named individuals. It also comes with auditing features for traceability. The users who have planning privileges can create their own versions of model data, use allocation features, add new...

Creating a planning model

Execute the following steps to create a planning model:

1. Click on the main menu icon, and go to Create | Model:

You can create a planning model from scratch in which you enter values manually in the cells or copy and paste data from a spreadsheet. You can also create this model type by importing data from a variety of sources. To keep things simple, you will fetch data from an Excel file named StoresData.xlsx in this exercise.

2. On the New Model page, click on Import a file from your computer:

3. On the Import Model From File dialog, click on the Select Source File button (A), and in the Windows Open dialog, browse for the StoresData.xlsx file (B) that comes with the book's source. Note that this file has three sheets carrying data for the Actuals, Budget, and Forecast categories. Start the proceeding and import data by selecting the Actuals option...

Visualizing planning model data

The model is ready for analysis. As with the analytics model, we once again need to create a temporary story to view the data of this model. Execute the following set of steps for this purpose:

12. From the main menu, go to Create | Story.
13. On the first wizard page that asks how you want to start the story, select the Add a Canvas page option. The story page will appear with a default name for the new story.
14. Click on the arrow in the Data View section on the toolbar. You will be prompted to add data.
15. On this screen, select Use existing data.
16. In the Select Your Data dialog, select StoresData. This is the planning model data you uploaded in the previous section. Click on OK to dismiss the dialog:

The data view panels that you worked with in the previous chapter will be presented again. Click on Quantity sold (A) in the Measures pane to see its actual...

Viewing the text data

In SAP Analytics Cloud, you can use the table object to view your model data. A table is a spreadsheet-like object that can be used to view and analyze text data in a model. For further details on this object, see Chapter 7, Working With Tables and Grids. Execute the following steps to view the data of the three versions in a table object:

29. On your story page, click on the plus icon on the page toolbar, and select Grid to add a grid page to the story.
30. On the new grid page, click on the Add icon on the toolbar to add a table object.
31. In the Select Model dialog, select the first Existing Model option (A), and then select StoresData (B) from the Name list. Click on OK.

In the Builder panel, set the following properties for the table object:

32. Click on the Add Measures/Dimensions link (A) in the Rows section, and select the Store dimension.
33. Again, click on the...

Spreading, distributing, and assigning values

In addition to fetching values from the model data, you can add your own values in the table. For this, you use the allocations feature of SAP Analytics Cloud, which includes spreading, distributing, and assigning values. Allocation is the process of splitting values derived from source data into multiple values and storing the values in target data. The allocation feature is used in planning and data analysis to gain insights.

The spreading, distribution, and assigning operations are ways of allocating values in a table to one or more target cells. These features can help you quickly book new values and adjust existing values in a plan:

• Spreading: In spreading operations, the value of a source cell is spread across leaf members. Values are taken from a higher level of a hierarchy and spread at a lower level. You can perform spreading...

Creating private versions

The three versions (actual, budget, and forecast) of data you added to your planning model in the previous section are known as public versions. Public versions are stored in the raw model data in the database. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, access to the model data is controlled by data privileges that you establish by enabling data access control for a dimension and assigning appropriate privileges to a user in the Modeler.

In SAP Analytics Cloud, you can create your own private versions of the data from these public version categories. Private versions are only visible to the creator or owner of the model. You use these versions to change or simulate plan values without making this visible to anyone else. When you publish a private version, it gets promoted to a public version, and the private version is dropped. You can create private versions...

Summary

Fail to plan is a plan to fail. Because planning helps you decide short-term and long-term goals, its significance cannot be overlooked for an organization. Planning is a process that involves the determination of a future course of action. Why, how, and when you should take an action are main subjects of planning. Increasing an organization's ability to adapt to future eventualities, making the company more competitive in its industry, reducing mistakes and oversights, making effective use of an organization's resources, and exercising better control are some of the peculiarities of planning.

Keeping in view the importance of planning, SAP Analytics Cloud helps you create full-featured planning models. Creating and working with a planning model is a huge subject, and a complete book can be dedicated to this subject. In this brief chapter, you were given an overview...